Vermel M. Whalen spent 12 years in the Ohio House: news obituary

State Rep. Vermel M. Whalen fought for consumers, children and others in her beloved Lee-Harvard neighborhood and beyond.

After a brief struggle with cancer, Whalen died Wednesday, March 13, in the Lee-Harvard home she'd occupied for the past 52 of her 84 years.

"She was a community spirit," said State Rep. Barbara Boyd of Cleveland Heights. "She just loved that Lee-Harvard area. You didn't go into Lee-Harvard without going through Vermel, and I don't care who the council person was. You didn't run a campaign in Cleveland without going through Vermel Whalen."

Whalen served in Columbus from 1986 through 1998. The Democrat won funds for local organizations, such as the Harvard Community Services Center and the East End Neighborhood House. She sponsored bills to keep customers behind on layaway payments from losing all their principal. She forced dealers to reveal if cars were salvage jobs, patched together with parts from wrecks.

"I was able to stop 20,000 cars from being dumped into the state of Ohio," she told The Plain Dealer in 1997. "Even used-car dealers didn't know they were salvage vehicles."

Like many politicians, Whalen started as an activist. Then "I realized that nothing could be accomplished by screaming and yelling in the streets. You had to move to where the action was."

She was born Vermel Marie Scott in Portageville, southeastern Missouri. She graduated from high school there, came to Cleveland as a young adult and briefly lived near St. Clair Avenue.

Whalen worked as a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic, Highland View Hospital and private homes. She volunteered for civic groups and candidates, such as the Stokes brothers. She administered the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act for Cleveland. She was also an assistant administrator for recreation. She earned certificates at Cleveland State University, Dyke College and the University of Georgia.

Whalen lost bids for City Council in the 1970s. In 1986, she was appointed to replace the late State Rep. John Thompson in House District 16. She won every election bid in that district and later the revamped District 12, which included parts of Maple Heights and Garfield Heights.

She fought for medical care for the poor, treatment for abusive parents and after-school programs for latchkey children and preferences for minority contractors. "The set-aside law is the only way that blacks have had any possibility of coming near fairness," she said in 1997.

She urged more help for poor school districts. "We are our brothers' keepers. We have to turn around and help those who are less fortunate."

Whalen fought to streamline adoption. "The system is abusing children by moving them here, there and everywhere."

She fell short of some goals. She persuaded the House three times to strengthen laws against carjacking, but the Senate would not go along. She also failed to stop City Hall from taking over Cleveland's schools.

Whalen won endorsements from the Citizens League and The Plain Dealer. "She has worked hard to serve the constituents of District 12," the newspaper wrote in 1994.

She was vice president of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party and second vice president of Black Elected Democrats of Ohio. She was a trustee of the Lee-Harvard Community Association, the local United Black Fund, the American Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and more. She won awards from the Ohio House, City Hall, United Black Fund and others.

After losing a sister young, Whalen raised two nieces, a nephew and a great-niece. She often took cruises and time-shared in Aruba.

In 1998, Whalen retired and endorsed John Barnes Jr.'s winning campaign to succeed her. "He's like a son to me," she said.

On Friday, Barnes said, "Vermel was known as an unrelenting campaigner... She had political juice that she knew how to use to help the people in her community. "

Vermel Marie Scott Whalen

1928-2013

Survivors: daughter, Yolanda Bayless of Cleveland; two nieces; a nephew and a great-niece.